Mobile phones (also known as mobile stations and personal trusted devices) have originally had ring tones similar to ordinary telephones. This caused a problem when two users in the same space had the same ring tone—causing confusion as to which mobile station is ringing. This problem has been solved as mobile phones became more advanced. Currently, mobile phones have several pre-stored ring tones from amongst which a user may select a preferred ring tone. In addition to ordinary ringing tones, melodies from familiar pieces of music have been implemented as ring tones and may be amongst the ring tones from which to choose. Ringing tones may also be referred as ring tunes, especially if in the form of a melody. With the increase use of mobile phones, there is still a possibility of the same user in the same space using the same ring tune.
Programming a telephone's ringing tone has been taught in U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,587 issued to Armanto et al. on Jul. 25, 2000, assigned to assignee of the present invention, which is incorporated herein by reference. In Armanto et al., the ring tone is sent to a mobile station in the form of a ring-tone message including an identifier identifying the message as a ring tone. Upon reception, the ring-tone message is identified on basis of the ring-tone message identifier. The ring-tone message is then modified into a suitable form for a ring-tone generator and memory. The ring tone may be sent as characters in a short message such as Short Message Service (SMS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), or by means of an off-line infrared link, e.g., of Inferred Data association (IrDa) type.
Short message service (SMS) is an example of message communication in mobile networks—specifically in GSM networks. SMS differs from speech and data services in that to send a short message, a connection from the sender to the receiver need not be established, since short messages are transmitted through signaling on control or signaling channels in digital mobile networks.
This situation does not provide the capabilities for a consumer to browse a selection of ring tones. Furthermore, each SMS or the like message may result in a charge to the consumer, even if the ring tone does not suit the consumer. Examples of message billing are provided by International Application Number PCT/FI99/00935, published on May 18, 2000, assigned Publication Number WO 00/28746 entitled MESSAGE COMMUNICATION CHARGING (assigned U.S. Ser. No. 09/850,036 and International Application Number PCT/FI98/00474, published on Dec. 10, 1998, assigned Publication Number WO 98/56202 entitled BILLING MOBILE TERMINATED SHORT MESSAGES (assigned U.S. Ser. No. 09/545,119). All the patent applications are assigned to related entities of the assignee of the present invention and are incorporated herein by reference.
There are currently websites from which a consumer may receive instructions and text which will allow them to manually program a tune into a mobile station or send ring tones to Nokia brand mobile stations. Examples of such sites are Club Nokia and YourMobile. This requires the user to have access to a personal computer (PC) or other World-Wide-Web (WWW) surfing device using browsers that support basic industry standards such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML). Such WWW sites have been designed for desktop PCs and faster connections and do not function well in narrow bandwidth and limited screen size devices.
Recent advancements in web protocols have resulted in the creation of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WAP solutions using Handheld Device Markup Language (HDML) or Wireless Markup Language (WML) allow web content to be adapted for use on narrow bandwidth and limited screen size handheld devices such as mobile stations. Mobile station manufacturers are embedding high-value added applications such as WAP compliant microbrowsers in their mobile stations that allow the mobile stations to function as a client for services and content from the Internet through a wireless portal. Microbrowsers may be logic in the form of software or firmware embedded in the end user device that enables the device to interact with a gateway on a network. Examples of microbrowsers are the Nokia Microbrowser, herein incorporated by reference and UP.Browser from Openwave, previously known as Phone.com (Redwood City, Calif.). A style guide for HDML may also be obtained from Openwave and other sources and is incorporated herein by reference.
A wireless portal or gateway is the point of entry through which the user accesses Internet content and services. The portal may send content and/or services to the user (referred to as PUSH) or the user may request content or services from the portal provider (referred to as PULL). An example of such a portal would be the Nokia Artus MAX Platform (Nokia Corporation; Irving, Tex.)
Information on WAP can be obtained at the Wapforum or Understanding WAP; Wireless Applications, Devices, and Services; ISBN 1-58053-093-1; Artech House Publishers herein incorporated by reference.
It would thus be desirable to deliver ring tunes to a mobile station via WAP or other similar service. There is also a need to provide the consumer with a system to approve or decline the billing of a delivered tune. There is also a need to provide for crediting a consumer who accepts advertising in the form of logo and/or jingles.